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On 6 October, Paul Badura-Skoda celebrated his 80th birthday! Shortly before the legendary pianist comes to Leipzig on 10 October (3rd Presentation concert of GENUIN ), there will be a jubilee concert in his honour in Paris; then he will embark on two concert tours to Japan and the USA. The deeply spiritual pianist has no intention of retiring and plays with as much vitality and Viennese charm as ever before.
Paul Badura-Skoda studied with Edwin Fischer. At age 20 he won first prize at the Austrian Music Competition and shortly thereafter was discovered and encouraged by both Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan. His career began to skyrocket after the Second World War and he earned a reputation as one of the great pianists of our time through performances at all the important festivals and music centres of Europe, the USA and Asia. Besides performing with Furtwängler and Karajan, during the following decades he also appeared under renowned conductors such as George Szell, Karl Böhm, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Georg Solti, Kent Nagano and John Elliot Gardiner.
A star pianist during the 1950s, Paul Badura-Skoda recorded the complete Piano Concertos of Beethoven with the Vienna Philharmonic under Hermann Scherchen. This historical recording is now making a comeback on CD issued by GENUIN – "The Five Piano Concertos" (GEN 87102). , in honour of the pianist’s 80th birthday. It will enable us to take a journey back through history into the interpretative art of the exceptional pianist Paul Badura-Skoda with conductor Hermann Scherchen.